without christine o'donnell, sharon angle, ken buck,ed to akin and richard mourdock, the party might today control the senate. how careful must be the republican picks be? tell us about the bench. we don't seem to talk about a deep bench for them. >> this might be the most fascinating story, more fascinating than the retirements themselves. in iowa there's a very conservative congressman, steve king, who might be eyeing the senate seat now vacated by tom ma harkin. he would have a great chance of winning a republican primary. in a general election it would be pretty tough. we're also going to see a very tough primary perhaps in georgia. and it will be interesting to see in west virginia whether the establishment republican running ends up getting a primary for the right. i think this is going to be the big dynamic to watch over the next year or so, thomas. >> let's look at massachusetts, though. there's a new poll out for former senator scott brown with an eight-point lead over the democratic party's generic candidate. then a 20-point lead over the democratic senatorial committee's p